Students of IIT Madras developed Driver Fatigue Detector to reduce Accidents

October 12, 2014: Nowadays, an increasing number of road accidents have become one of the major cause of concerns for our government and the society at large. With each passing day, the rate of road accidents has been steadily rising, which calls for an immediate solution.

One of the reasons behind a majority of road accidents today is driver fatigue. It is as dangerous as drunken driving and has been identified as a global issue when it comes to regularizing road safety measures. In cities and towns where drivers spend hours on jam packed roads and travel long distances via highways, very often sleep or tiredness overtakes their concentration while driving which can lead to fatal accidents.

To curb the rising number of accidents due to driver fatigue, one of the premier engineering institutes in the country -Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has come up with a device. The device is capable to be fitted in mainstream vehicles and tests are being conducted to check its effectivity and potential.

The unique creation functions by having a check on the muscle grip, brain activity and body pressure distribution of the driver. Moreover, the device has ECG and EEG that continuously monitor the driver’s brain.

Experts feel that the main challenge now is to bring this device from labs to roads. The success of this project is crucial as fatigued driving has continued to be one of the major yet ignored issues in India.